News From the Garden

For the last few years, I've been composting fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, dried leaves and other household compostable waste. My parents contribute a few bags per week of their own scraps, and the composter has faithfully done its job converting it all into good, rich humus.

Imagine my dismay when I took a walk out there this morning only to find that the fierce wind storms we've had in these last few days had ripped the cover off my composter and hurled it against the neighbor's fence! It was in about 5 pieces. Beyond repair.

I went to work right away, researching how to rig up a new cover. As chance would have it, I happened to run into my mom who was on her way to Lowes and asked her if she would ask someone there for a suggestion.

Instead, she came home with a new composter! (Thanks mom!)


Little and I put it together in a jiffy and marveled at the layers and progression of decomposition we saw when we lifted the old composter off the pile. I turned it as much as I could without making a mess before replacing it with the new composter.


As I passed the garden, I noticed that a few of the radishes were ready, so I picked them as I was leaving. I'm happy to report that the first of this year's produce was very tasty.



And... I cooked up the first of my organic, grass-fed ground beef! Threw it in the wok with some onions, the leftover Spiral Path potatoes from the other night, some salt, pepper and thyme.

I'm not a big ground-beef fan, so I was a little skeptical. But it was delicious! It really does have a different taste and texture than even the good supermarket beef. Savageman was a litte upset when I showed him the Green Ridge Acres pamphlet, showing the happily grazing animals, saying he didn't need to have a personal relationship with his lunch. But he admitted that it was indeed delicious.

I later heard him grumble, "Now I'm going to feel guilty about drinking this artifically sweetened iced-tea that I like."

:-D